BELMOPAN, Belize (CMC) — Prime Minister Dean Barrow has announced a minor reshuffle of his Cabinet, removing the police, Belize Defence Force (BDF) and the coastguard from the Ministry of National Security.

A brief Government statement said: “Instead, there will be two separate ministries — a stand-alone Ministry of the Police, with responsibility solely for that department; and a Ministry of Defence, with responsibility for the BDF and the Coast Guard”.

The statement said that Godwin Hulse is the new minister of police, and John Saldivar will be the minister of national security. Saldivar had been responsible for the police, BDF and Coast Guard.

Hulse, said the statement, will continue to be the minister of immigration, but will relinquish the natural resources portfolio.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Vanessa Retreage was expected to be sworn in yesterday as a senator after which she would be named minister of natural resources.

Prime Minister Barrow yesterday downplayed a report that Saldivar’s reassignment was as a result of his past relationship with murder accused, William Mason.

“I did not think that anything that Minister Saldivar did amounted to criminality or corruption. He was perhaps conned into this acquaintanceship/friendship with this individual in the same way that many others, including some additional ministers, were,” Barrow told reporters.

He said nothing since last Friday has occurred to make him depart from that point of view.

“But as was made clear in the question and answer session that we had on Friday, the optics also include the fact that public perception [makes] it untenable for Minister Saldivar to continue to head the police ministry in the current circumstances where, Mr Mason, or whatever name he currently goes by, has already been arraigned, charged for murder and kidnapping,” said Barrow.

He added: “… There is clearly an ongoing investigation and the relationship between Minister Saldivar and Mr Mason up until the point it was terminated — whenever that point was — that relationship was such as to make the public and indeed myself and other members of Cabinet uncomfortable with a situation where seeds of mistrust might have been sewn.

“In fact, they have already been planted. But where the appearances are such as to oblige almost the public to, at the very least, question strongly that particular configuration, where Minister John Saldivar and what was seen up until today as his police department are in fact advancing the investigation,” the prime minister said.